Collecting the Dots: Ready, set, Christmas!

As some of you may know, we have a very intense annual Christmas ritual. We have basically done the same routine since we got married, with neither of our traditions having to compromise! (miracle.) Anyway, I haven't always done a great job with a re-cap, so here goes nothin' for 2012's!

Before leaving Houston, we have two celebrations. The first was at Linnet's with our Houston Deily side of the family the Thursday before Christmas. She cooked a delicious dinner, and we opened presents! Madeleine particularly fell in love with two stuffed animals Linnet picked up in Thailand. She affectionately named the elephant "Emmalyn" and the rabbit "Honey Bunny."

On the Saturday before Christmas, we had "family Christmas" which is what we do simply among my birth family of origin (ha!) the Deilys of Cypress. This has been a tradition since I was a little girl - our family's own intimate time before heading to Dallas. We enjoyed another delicious meal by Mom, Dad read the Christmas story, and we did family stockings and gifts. The stockings were new this year - we used to do those Christmas morning, but Mom thought it would be fun to do at this gathering. The sisters surprised Mom and Dad with some stockings for them too! There were so many sweet, thoughtful and fun gifts - Julianne gave all the girls salt and pepper wands - really makes cooking that much more magical to wave a wand over your pot! Liz made a sweet little brown cat for Madeleine (which she named "Moo Hoo"), Liz got a food chemist set (nerd) and Julianne gave Cason an I an extravagant date night all planned out and of course covered childcare-wise!

After church the next morning, we loaded up to head north! We began the metroplex portion of our Christmas gatherings with a Gajdica dinner at my Uncle John and Aunt Suzanne's house. We missed an entire family - my Uncle Ronnie and Aunt Peggy's family didn't make it this year (understandably! It's getting harder and harder to gather everyone as we've done in the past due to growing families! We missed them though! We had some delicious pulled pork tacos and some lovely time around the firepit catching up.

After our dinner in Plano, we went a little further north to Denton where we spent the night at the Whites'. The next day was Christmas eve! See how excited our girl is? She got her nails painted sparkly red, and she donned a Christmas dress of mine from just a few years ago. :) It's a little short on her, considering she is tall and she is a few months older than I was when I wore it! We can be Christmas Eve nomads when we are in DFW, but this year we went to Prestonwood. It was a beautiful service, and Madeleine loved all the candles.

Following the service, we went back to my Grandma Carole's house. We had Christmas there, along with my Dad's sister's family. We were minus two of his siblings' families. My Grandma Carole is a retired librarian and a freelance writer. One of the treasures she gives us every Christmas (for the past several years) is a booklet of her memoirs. She is such a wonderful storyteller, and I learn so much about writing from her.

Madeleine looks so huge in the picture on Grandma Carole's lap. Ha.

Also I just love this picture of Grandma Carole. When we had asked her for some ideas, she mentioned some kind of kerchief/head wrap that was a thick, small scarf, perhaps a square, that could be used to keep her head warm. She asked if Community Cloth had anything like that. I didn't think so until I scoured the studio and found TWO cute kerchiefs by Illham, knitted with soft, warm thread. She loved them! It's such a great feeling to find the exact thing that someone wanted or needed!

We went back to Gran and Granpa's house (a few streets over) to settle in for Santa, and when we woke up on Christmas morning, Madeleine was quite excited to see that Santa brought her exactly what she asked for: "a pink scooter and a purple lollipop." Santa even managed to fill her stocking with some fun things like play dough, a Spanish book, some goldfish, a cupcake shirt and some (gasp!) big girl undies!! Cason and I got her one thing this year. A $5 baby from Walmart. We knew the grandparents and great-grandparents would spoil her :) (which they did!) so no need for Mom and Dad to go nuts. She loves baby Camille! (named for a real baby girl of our friends the Bishops')

After the hubbub died down a bit, and everyone scattered to get ready for the day, I had a quiet moment of reflection at Gran and Granpa's kitchen table, over my coffee and coffee cake. See, I've woken up in their home on Christmas morning every single year since 1988, when we moved to Houston. Every. Single. Year. Well, long story short, my parents have (we think) decided to start staying in Cypress for Christmases going forward, for no other reason than well...they are grandparents now, and my sisters are in serious relationships, and we just can't come to Gran and Granpa's every single Christmas going forward. Anyway, however things change or stay the same going forward, I am grateful, so very grateful, for memories made in Plano at Christmastime over the course of my entire life. Full disclosure, y'all, I'm actually writing this blog in March, actually March 2, Gran and Granpa's 56th wedding anniversary and I am getting choked up. Cheers to nostalgia...amazing grandparents...etc.

Sniff sniff...okay anyway. On to more celebrations (hang tight - two left!) The rest of the Gajdica clan that was in DFW arrived later for gifts and lunch. When we were opening gifts, probably the most special one was the large shutterfly book the cousins gave to Gran and Granpa, full of photos from their Celebration event in November. We all contributed pictures, but my cousin Brooke did the entire layout of the book. We were all crying as they were looking at it! So sweet.

We packed up one more time after a delicious lunch made by Gran, and we headed to Denton. I forgot to mention that there was a weird winter storm that moved in overnight. It was raining really hard, and there was some intense lightning and thunder that I am more accustomed to in summer months. Anyway, it continued to pour rain all morning, and we knew a freeze was coming. It was so exciting driving to Denton. As we were in the car we watched the rain change to snow. Magical. When we arrived to Denton, we were greeted by the courthouse, just down the street from Cason's parents' home. It was especially fun because Madeleine fell asleep in the car while it was still raining, then woke up to snow at Nana and Pop's! Madeleine's Pop loved the Reveille hat she picked out for him!

Present opening at the Whites' is a looooooong affair :) so we took several breaks to play in the snow. Among Madeleine's special gifts was a teaset from the Bristers (Aunt Heather in particular) and her very first Pandora bracelet from Nana and Pop (Nana in particular!)

You can tell the difference in the present opening breaks - the first break it was still coming down hard, hence the washed-out pictures, and the second break it had cleared up. Plenty had accumulated for a snowball fight, and per usual, Madeleine jumps right in with her big boy cousins!